Lateropulsion of the body is the occurrence of an irresistible fall in individuals without vertigo, paresis, sensory loss, or cerebellar deficits . It is a well-known clinical feature of the lateral medullary infarction, but other lesions with cerebellum, midbrain, thalamus, and pons could also result in body lateropulsion 2-6. Body lateropulsion is usually associated with other neurological symptoms or signs, which vary according to the structures involved. Vestibular dysfunction in the roll plane of the vestibulo-ocular reflex is responsible for body lateropulsion in most cases . There have been only few reports 7, 8 on body lateropulsion as a presenting symptom of rostral midbrain infarction. Furthermore, previous reports 7, 8 have not emphasized the vestibular dysfunction as a possible mechanism of body lateropulsion and did not perform a quantitative posturography test to investigate the mechanism of gait dysfunction. I present a patient who had body lateropulsion as the presenting feature of a small infarctin the rostral paramedian midbrain and discuss the possible mechanism of body lateropulsion at the level of the rostral midbrain.
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